


Aria

by seekingferret



Series: The Jessica Goldberg Variations [1]
Category: Merchant of Venice - Shakespeare
Genre: Collection:Purimgifts Day 1, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-16
Updated: 2011-03-16
Packaged: 2017-10-17 01:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/171207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekingferret/pseuds/seekingferret
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Statement of theme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aria

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darthjamtart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthjamtart/gifts).



She is twelve years old and newly initiated into womanhood when she first meets Lorenzo in the marketplace. He is fifteen and a little bit dumb, but she likes the crooked snaggle in his smile and she likes the way he focuses on her like she's a person and not a Jewess.

He can't speak Hebrew or Ladino or Sabir, the first three languages she tries to greet him in, which tells her that he's not a Jew and not a sailor, and this is excellent news. Finally she tries Venetian, and he answers her back in a thick Roman accent she can mostly understand.

They run into each other a lot in the next weeks, seemingly by accident, but she soon realizes that he's been orchestrating the accidents, so she starts doing the same. She orders him to stop trying to run into her, because he's clumsy and her father will be onto them soon if he keeps it up. She takes over. They meet when she says they'll meet, where she says they'll meet. He swears he'll tell no one of their liaisons, and even though she knows better, she trusts him.

They kiss for the first time when she is thirteen and he is sixteen. Jessica feels like she is Solomon's beloved and she eagerly waits for Pesach to come, so she can read Shir Hashirim without rousing her father's suspicion. אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי. She takes her mother's ring and imagines giving it to Lorenzo as a gift. She is upset when she realizes her father doesn't notice it missing, and even more upset when she realizes she cares.

They elope together when she is fifteen and he is eighteen, old enough to make a living for them, though the part of her smart enough to plan the escape is also smart enough to worry that she's the one who will have to support them. She doesn't worry much, though. She believes in true love.

Painting by Maurycy Gottlieb is in the public domain.


End file.
